Note 618 — Chapter IV · THE MAGISTRACY
Reading edition
In the course of the Republic imperium came to denote par excellence command abroad, as was natural, since here alone the power was unshackled. Hence the phrase cum imperio esse descriptive of a magistrate who can assert this latent power (Cic. ad Fam. viii. 8, 8 “qui praetores fuerunt neque in provincia cum imperio fuerunt”) and the opposition between magistratus and imperium. Lex Tab. Bant. 1. 16 “quibus quisque eorum mag(istratum) imperiumve inierit”; Lex Acilia Rep. 1. 8 “dum magi(stratum) aut imperium habebunt.”